MobLab is proud to be the launch partner for ChangeMakers: a podcast about ordinary people working together to create positive change in their community. Look for new episodes in coming weeks as well as for stories that dig into the campaigning innovations and personal stories that Amanda Tattersall and the ChangeMakers team are sharing.

Subscribe or listen on your favorite podcast service. Find out more and listen to every episode below.

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Podcast One

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Episode 10: Fleeing for Your Life

In many parts of the world politicians are increasingly scapegoating refugees, and in the process denying them their human rights. But there is one country that’s decided to treat refugees with basic human decency. Uganda doesn’t lock up its refugees. Instead, they live in settlements with freedom of movement, access to land and education.

What can the rest of the world learn from Uganda?

Episode 9: Fighting the Hard Right

Have you ever clicked on an online petition and wondered whether it worked?

In 2016, GetUp–a digital campaign organisation best known for its online petitions and email campaigns–decided to go offline. They came up with a strategy to remove extreme conservative politicians from the Australian parliament. One of the places they went to was the electorate of Bass in northern Tasmania–a seat not known for being welcoming to out-of-towners.
What did they do and how did they do it? GetUp has been condemned by many for the campaign they ran. Now they talk openly about its strengths and weaknesses.

Episode 8: The Power of vision

What does it take to improve the lives of millions of people? The late Fred Hollows knew. He was known across the globe for his groundbreaking work in disrupting the global medical establishment, and his legacy lives on among the doctors he inspired. His most famous student, Dr Sanduk Ruit, has helped bring sight to over 125 000 people and trained thousands more doctors. In the process, he has directly improved the lives of millions of people.
But what does it take to achieve transformation at this kind of scale?

Episode 7: Fighting Dirty – A Standing Rock Story

What would you do if someone wanted to bulldoze an oil pipeline through your country, threatening not just your land, but your water and air? And what if the nation backing them had a history of playing dirty? That’s the situation the people in today’s episode found themselves in. The battle over building an oil pipeline in Standing Rock in South Dakota, USA. Should they take the high road? Or respond in kind?

Episode 6: Protesting in Putin’s Russia

What would you do if someone wanted to illegally concrete over your local park, and build an apartment block on it? And what would you do if the authorities supported the illegal construction? Today episode looks at how to organise genuine opposition in a place where the one thing they hate is genuine opposition. How a small protest against destruction of a local park turned into a mass movement that’s sweeping Russia.

Episode 5: When Anger Works – Part Two

This is the second part of an exploration into how anger can be channelled into powerful actions. Part two comes from Brisbane, Australia where a simple vigil outside a hospital turned into a national flashpoint that overturned a decade of political consensus on Australia’s refugee policy. Remarkably, when they began the organisers of the vigil didn’t know what they were even aiming to achieve.

Episode 4: When Anger Works – Part One

Placing yourself in harm’s way is powerful but scary. Often it is fueled by the white-hot anger of knowing that you’re on the side of justice, and yet failing to make the change you need. This is a two part about times when direct action was used to confront an overwhelming force. Part one looks at the remarkable #FeesMustFall student movement in South Africa, that all started when someone threw poo at a statue.

Episode 3: Women Who Lead

Sometimes it’s a strength to not know too much about how something is usually done. In both of today’s stories, we see women who had very little experience, entering male-dominated spaces and smashing it. By disrupting the business-as-usual approach, their innovations have had lasting impact. The first story is about mothers who are standing up to the gun lobby in the USA, and the second is about the women on the frontline of terrorism in Kenya.

Episode 2: How to Win

When the largest rally in human history in 2003 didn’t stop the Iraq War it makes you wonder what does it take for a coalition to win? In the second episode of ChangeMakers podcast we look at Brexit and examine how the types of coalitions used by each side influenced the outcome of the referendum. Then we go to the Northern Rivers in regional Australia look at how a different kind of alliance against Coal Seam Gas / Fracking sought to organise across the entire community.

Episode 1: Making the Impossible Possible

You might think it’d be easier to ask for something achievable in a campaign, rather than demand the impossible. But sometimes the opposite is true. In the first episode of ChangeMakers podcast, we look at the famous Fight for 15 campaign in the United States, which is radically changing the way low-wage workers fight for better conditions. Then we look at the roots of the radical politics that is sweeping Barcelona – and examine their attempts to “empower the street.”

About the ChangeMakers Podcast

There are 140 million people engaged in social change work across the globe. These are the ChangeMakers. The ChangeMakers podcast is a weekly, half-hour globally focused series that tells stories and lessons about the world of social change.

ChangeMakers is hosted by Dr. Amanda Tattersall – an activist and social change leader who has written the globally focused “go to” book on coalition strategy (Power in Coalition, Cornell University Press), set up some of Australia’s most successful social change organisations (GetUp.org.au and the Sydney Alliance), and is a post doctoral fellow at the University of Sydney. Tattersall understands that change is created, lead and sustained by everyday people. But she remains frustrated that we still haven’t turned the corner on creating a world that nurtures the common good. ChangeMakers is an effort to show the world how change is normal, possible and beautiful.

About Us

The Mobilisation Lab is a global learning and collaboration network powering the future of social change campaigns. We equip progressive movements and leaders to adapt and thrive in the digital, people-powered era.Read More